Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9504260028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
First up is ``Me and the Mob,'' an ultra low-budget, overachieving comedy. Jimmy Corona (James Lorinz) is a struggling writer who lacks inspiration and support. His agent brushs him off with, ``Ask not what your agent can do for you, but what you can do for your agent.'' Then his avaricious girlfriend (Sandra Bullock, in a small but funny cameo) walks out on him.
Bottomed out, Jimmy decides to make a career change and says yes when his uncle (Tony Darrow) offers him a job in the family business. The next day, Jimmy's collecting loan payments the old-fashioned way, making unrefusable offers and getting rid of ``enemies,'' so to speak. But before he gets his feet wet, the cops are after him to inform on his new associates.
Too often the action is talky and slow, but producer/co-writer/director Frank Rainone has a good sense of character and Lorinz is an effective deadpan comedian. It's not going to make anyone forget ``Married to the Mob'' or ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' but it's got more than a few good laughs. Recommended for gangster flick fans.
Joan Severance and C. Thomas Howell play variations on the same roles in two neo-noir mysteries, ``Payback'' and ``Dangerous Indiscretion.'' In both, he's the younger man, she's the older woman with an inconvenient husband.
The real focus of ``Payback'' is a hidden fortune. Oscar (Howell) is a convict who's given a clue to the loot's location by a fellow con. But by the time Oscar is released, a sadistic guard named Gully (Marshall Bell) is already on the trail. He's gone so far as to open a restaurant in the neighborhood, where he works with his wife Rose (Severance), a button-busting waitress.
Of course, there's a catch - several catchs before it's all over - and though they're not all successful, they are inventive, leading to a neat twist. Director Anthony Hickox is an old hand at this kind of escapism and he keeps the action moving at a quick pace. He also has created a strong sense of place with his Pacific Coast locations.
``Dangerous Indiscretion'' is more conventional. This time out, Howell is Jim Lomax, a smart young ad man who meets the enigmatically beautiful Caroline (J.S.) in a Seattle grocery store. One-night stand turns into affair. Then he learns that she's married to Roger Everett (Malcolm MacDowell, at his most menacing), a powerful businessman who wants to hire Lomax's agency to promote a multi-million-dollar municipal deal of questionable legitimacy.
Now, at this point in the standard thriller, the lovers conspire to get rid of the husband, but here ...
If director Richard Kletter stretches credulity in the second half of the story, it's a forgiveable sin. He also develops the characters realistically and he got excellent performances from his leads. In terms of setting and tone, this one is similar to ``Disclosure,'' though for my money, it's much more involving, tense and sexy. Kletter knows how to shoot a hot love scene, but with the editing of less than a minute of film, this one could be shown on primetime TV.
Turning from grown-up fare to kidvid, we find a quintet of tapes that were used to entertain a seven-year-old visitor over spring break. My nephew Erik is a young videophile of strongly held tastes. As expected, he went right for the new Mighty Morphin Power Ranger tapes, ``Goldar's Vice-Versa'' and ``Where There's Smoke There's Fire,'' and the Skeleton Warriors ``Heart and Soul,''' and dashed through them in short order. He was also taken with ``Real Animals: A Day with Lions and Other Cats,'' a bright look at felines at home, at the zoo and in the wild. It's the kind of non-fiction that kids don't have to be coaxed to watch.
When we settled down with feature films, he enjoyed one of the Moonbeam sci-fi adventures, ``Pet Shop,'' about cute critters from outer space.
The tape that really got to him, though - the one we watched at least 12 times in three days, or so it seemed - is an Oscar-winning animated short film, ``The Wrong Trousers,'' recently broadcast on PBS. British filmmaker Nick Park uses cartoon-like clay figures of Wallace and his dog Gromet to tell a comic caper tale worthy of Hitchcock. It's a wonderful story filled with visual jokes and it ends with one of the wildest chases you'll ever see. Highly recommended.
Next week: The long-awaited return of guilty pleasures!
New releases:
Forrest Gump ***
Starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinese, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Paramount. 142 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, strong language, violence.
Last year's surprise hit and multi-Oscar winner arrives on video at a low price (around $17 in some stores) and behind a huge publicity campaign. Arguably, no mere movie could live up to all the hype that surrounds this one, but is that a fair criticism? For whatever reason, people love this decades-spanning story of a simple soul who encounters all of the problems that have beset this country since the 1960s.
A separate ``making of'' tape, ``Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump'' (37 min. $9.95) will be released next Friday. It reveals where Tom Hanks found Forrest's accent and what Forrest thought about Vietnam.
Hoop Dreams *** 1/2
Starring William Gates and Arthur Agee. Directed by Steve James. New Line Home Video. 176 min. Rated PG-13 for language.
Forget the dreaded ``D'' word - ``documentary.'' This is one of the best films of the year. Though the subject is basketball, this is really a coming-of-age story about two young black men, William Gates and Arthur Agee. At age 14, they were recruited on the playgrounds of a tough Chicago housing project into a private, predominantly white high school with a well-established basketball program. For the next four years the filmmakers followed their lives on and off the basketball court. It's a story as compelling, surprising and emotionally rich as any fiction.
Me and the Mob HH1/2
Bullseye Video. 85 min. Rated R for language, mild violence, comic sexual content.
Payback **1/2
Vidmark. 93 min. Rated R for subject matter, sexual content, brief nudity, violence, strong language.
Dangerous Indiscretion ** 1/2
Summa Video. Rated R for subject matter, sexual content, brief nudity, violence, strong language.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Goldar's Vice-Versa and Where There's Smoke There's Fire **
Saban. 30 min. each. Unrated, contain some violence.
Skeleton Warriors: Heart and Soul **
30 min. BMG Video. Unrated, contains some violence.
A Day With Lions and Other Cats ** 1/2
Kid Vision. 30 min. Unrated, contains no objectionable material.
Pet Shop ** 1/2
88 min. Paramount. Rated PG. Rated PG for mild violence.
The Wrong Trousers *** 1/2
27 min. Unrated, contains no objectionable material. (This tape is not available through conventional retail or rental outlets. It is sold by Video Finders, the marketing side of PBS programming. The price is $14.95, plus $5 handling. Call 1-800-343-4727 and ask for Jay. He gave me this information.)
by CNB